Our Pathbreaking Work and Tradition of Service

With our clinical work, education programs and world-class research on the nature and causes of mental illness – from addiction and schizophrenia to autism spectrum disorders – the UMass Department of Psychiatry is helping individuals and families transform their lives. We are proud of our accomplishments and pleased to be a part of the nationally ranked University of Massachusetts Medical School and UMass Memorial Health Care system.

The department's "bench to bedside" and "bedside to community" research focuses on treatment and prevention.

Our products and services reach across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and, now, are found in numerous sites internationally.

Our more than 300 faculty and 2,000 staff members work in many settings within the Medical School and UMass Memorial Health Care, the public sector, and the community at large.

Douglas M. Ziedonis MD, MPH Chairman, Dept. of Psychiatry

Latest Psychiatry Department News

2015 Central Massachusetts Regional Brain BeeCongratulations to Snigdha Allaparthi, 9th grade student at Lexington High School and winner of the 9th Annual Central Massachusetts Regional Brain Bee! Miss Allaparthi will be traveling to Baltimore, MD, to compete in the national brain bee in March. Read the T&G article here.

Dr. Phoebe Moore was a recent guest on the SHINE Initiative's monthly TV show Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds, hosted by Paul Richard on Worcester Community Cable Access, Channel 194. The discussion centered around anxiety, specifically as it affects young people. You can watch the show here.

Special K, a Hallucinogen, Raises Hopes and Concerns as a Treatment for DepressionIt is either the most exciting new treatment for depression in years or it is a hallucinogenic club drug that is wrongly being dispensed to desperate patients in a growing number of clinics around the country. "We don't know what the long-term side effects of this are," said Dr. Anthony J. Rothschild. Read the story in The New York Times.

Spotlight

Can a genetic test help predict which antidepressant will be most effective?

By Sandra GrayUMass Medical School CommunicationsDepression is the most commonly diagnosed mental illness, and antidepressants are the most frequently prescribed treatments for it. But with dozens of medications to choose from, and with individuals responding better to some drugs than to others—possibly due to genetic differences that affect how the medications are metabolized and how they act on the brain—patients must often try several medications before finding one that is most effective.

"It's a lot of trial and error even for those of us who are experts, and most antidepressants are prescribed by primary care physicians, not psychiatrists," said UMass Medical School psychiatrist Anthony Rothschild, MD, the Irving S. and Betty Brudnick Chair in Psychiatry, professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Psychopharmacologic Research and Treatment at UMMS.Read more...